1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer, digital copier, complex machine or similar image forming apparatus with a scanner and a method of controlling it, and also to a printer capable of analyzing commands and character codes sent from a host and producing a corresponding printing or filling a figure with fill pattern data which is inputted from an image scanner.
2. Discussion of the Background
It has been customary to load data read by a scanner in an application and combine it with another kind of print data in the application. Specifically, it is a common practice with, for example, a digital copier, to develop image data from a host (or read data) in a video random access memory (VRAM), write read data or image data to be combined in the VRAM over the developed image data to thereby produce data to be written, and then sequentially transfer the combined data from the VRAM to an image forming section. Regarding a printer, when characters are to be printed in a font other than a font installed in the printer, the font of interest is usually down-loaded from a host or fed from a font cartridge or a card associated with the printer or from a disk device. Further, when it is desired to fill a polygon or a font with a pattern, use is generally made of a fill pattern installed in the printer. However, since the number of fill patterns which can be installed in the printer is limited, other desired fill patterns are registered on a host connected to the printer.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 140796/1990 discloses a system for registering extra characters read by a scanner. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 181784/1990 teaches a device for editing a font by reading a font with a scanner.
The conventional method of controlling an image forming apparatus with a scanner will be extremely effective when a great amount of contents should be edited, e.g., some different kinds of read data should be combined. However, the problem is that data to be written cannot be generated unless an image is developed in the VRAM at least twice, even in the event of relatively simple editing, e.g., when only part of read data should be combined. As a result, an extremely long period of time is consumed until the data has been actually printed. Moreover, many of conventional printers need disproportionate costs in obtaining font data from a font cartridge or a card or a disk. In addition, the kinds of fonts available with conventional printers are limited. On the other hand, when an original font is generated on the host and down-loaded in the printer, complicated software for editing has to be installed in the host. Besides, generating data for registering fill pattern data is time- and labor-consuming and, generally, difficult for operators to perform.